Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Polish Development Aid – Small Progress, Key Problems Still Unresolved

Comment of Grupa Zagranica to the report ‘Polish Foreign Aid 2012’ recently published by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Key indicators of Polish development aid are deemed highly unsatisfying by organizations affiliated to Grupa Zagranica. CSOs recognize an urgent need for fundamental changes regarding both quantity and quality of Polish aid.

Stagnation and lack of ambition
Over the last 5 years Polish aid remained at the level of 0.08-0.09% GNP. Thus, Poland has not fulfilled its international commitment to increase aid up to 0.17% GNP until 2010 and there are no signs that it would reach the level of 0.33% in 2015 as declared.

Are we helping the right people and in the right way?
Large part of Polish development aid over the last 5 years has been transferred to countries, which do not count as priority countries according to the official aid strategy documents. China is most prominent among them, receiving 148 PLN in preferential loans in 2012 (approx. 10% total Polish development aid).

See the real aid
Inflated aid becomes increasingly a concern, as ODA statistics are augmented by inclusion of various costs which cannot be regarded as genuine aid. This mainly applies to costs of refugee accommodation in Poland and costs of foreign students at Polish universities.

Poor regulations
According to Grupa Zagranica the regulations in force – Act on Development Aid, as well as Multiannual Development Cooperation Programme (MDCP) – require profound revision. In particular, mid- and long-term objectives and planned results for particular countries and for Polish aid overall need to be incorporated into MDCP in order to allow for meaningful evaluation of quality and sustainability of Polish aid.

The Polish AidWatch Report will be published by Grupa Zagranica in the middle of November.

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